THE GREAT CALCUTTA DERBY
Day 2,846, 12:20
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Published in India 
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by
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by Lord Turin
"Football is not just a matter of life and death...it's much more than that" - Bill Shankly
We're hours away from the 312th Calcutta derby or as we call it "Boro Match". This Calcutta Derby is one the most famous and hotly contested derbies in the world despite of the fact that our great nation is a minnow in world football. This rivalry is 90 years old and is featured in FIFA's list of classic derbies. Most of the Mohunbagan fanbase comes from the northern part of kolkata while East Bengal fans mostly hail from the southern part of the city. Historically Mohunbagan fans were mostly from the west part of undivided bengal and East Bengal fans came from the eastern part. This is also known as the battle of 2 delicacies East Bengal being represented by the Hilsa (Ilish Mach) and Mohunbagan by Prawn (Chingri Mach).
Both Teams meet atleast thrice every year, twice in the national league and once in the local league. Though a local derby both of these Boro Clubs enjoy a global fanbase too. East Bengal boasts international fanclubs like East Bengal The Real Power and the newer Red & Gold lovers while Mohunbagan is cheered by the Mariners on The Move. This derby attracts a lot of fans who travel to watch their team play.
Lets take a look at some historic facts:
Mohun Bagan are one of Asia’s oldest clubs having been inaugurated in 1889 in the city then known under its anglicized name, Calcutta. The significant British influence in what was, until 1911, the nation’s capital, ensured the game flourished, drawing players from other regions, and it is against this backdrop in which today’s rivalry took root.
Like many great rivalries a schism, albeit in this case an indirect one, led to the birth of a local challenger. In mid-1920, the Jora Bagan club took to the field against Mohun Bagan without star Sailesh Bose, much to the chagrin of club vice-president Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri. Such was the industrialist's displeasure, he decided to form a new club and East Bengal was born. As Chaudhuri and his co-founders hailed from East Bengal, essentially now modern-day Bangladesh, the club were traditionally supported by immigrants from that area. This resulted in the clubs being backed by two different socio-economic groups, although this has largely changed over the decades.
The first major meeting between the two clubs occurred in 1925 and resulted in a 1-0 win for East Bengal in a Calcutta League match.In the return league of 1925 Mohun Bagan defeated East Bengal by 1-0. The result was repeated when the pair met for the first time in the prestigious IFA Shield in 1944. East Bengal’s semi-final triumph was all the more poignant due to Mohun Bagan’s historic and deep-seated affiliation with the tournament.
Some Facts about this historic Rivalry among The Red and Gold Brigade and The Green-Maroon Mariners
i) The two teams met for the first time in 1925, when East Bengal won the fixture 1-0. Nepal Chakraborty walked into the history books by scoring the only goal. Mona Dutta was the skipper of the winning side.
ii) The 100th derby was played on December 16, 1967, in Rovers Cup final, in which East Bengal had defeated Mohun Bagan 2-0. The 200th match between them was an Airlines Cup final in April 1993, in which Bagan again won 6-5, courtesy a tie-break. The 300th meeting between the two sides was in a championship-leg encounter of the Calcutta Football League's premier division held on January 8, 2012. Nigerian Okolie Odafa and Manish Bhargav scored as the Mariners sealed the game 2-0.
iii) The highest margin of win is the famous 5-0 victory of East Bengal on 30th September, 1975. But it is unknown to many that Shyam Thapa had missed a penalty for the Red and Gold in that match. Had he scored from the spot in the 11th minute, it would have been a worse humiliation for their neighbours. Ashok Banerjee was the skipper of the winning side. In the aforementioned match, Kajal Dhali of East Bengal took the field for his side even though his mother passed away just a few days ago.
iv) Umakanto Palodhi, a Mohun Bagan supporter committed suicide after the 0-5 loss in 1975. In his suicide note was written the lines- “In my next birth, I will take the revenge by becoming a Mohun Bagan footballer.”
v) A fatal pandemonium occurred in the derby on 16th August, 1980 taking a toll of 16 young lives. This marks the darkest day of Indian football. As the referee gave Dilip Palit and Bidesh Basu the marching orders in the second half, the gallery burst into agitation. A stampede at the Eden Gardens resulted in the disaster.
vi) 13th July, 1997 witnessed the madness of the city reach its all-time high as 1,31,000 supporters came to the Salt Lake stadium to watch the derby. However, this was by no means an accurate figure.
East Bengal had won the match 4-1 with Bhaichung scoring a hat-trick, while Najimul Haque had scored the other goal. Chima Okorie reduced the deficit for the Green and Maroons.
vii) Chidi Edeh is the first foreigner to score a hat-trick in the derby. Chidi also holds the record of scoring the maximum number of goals in a single match. He had put the ball into the net four times in Bagan’s 5-3 win over East Bengal on 25th October, 2009. Manish Maithani had scored the other goal.
viii) Bhaichung Bhutia has scored the maximum number of goals in the derby. Among his 19 goals, 13 are for East Bengal, while the other six are for Bagan. Jose Ramirez Barreto comes second with 17 goals all scored for the Mariners, which obviously is the highest number of goals for a particular side by a single player in the derby.
ix) Only four players have captained both the sides: Goutam Sarkar, Prashanta Banerjee, Dulal Biswas and Renedy Singh. An interesting similarity is that all four had been the captain of the East Bengal side first and then went on to lead the Bagan side in later parts of their career.
x) Among the 311 games played between these sides, East Bengal leads the winning chart with an impressive 117-87 margin.
xi) The two teams have faced each other 36 times in the National Football League and I-League combined. East Bengal have won 14 of them, while Mohun Bagan have snatched the bragging rights in 11 games. Honours were shared on 10 occasions.
This kind of matches have seen their fair part of tragedy as well. Every year a number of supporters of either clubs are injured in skrimishes that occur after the match. Football is supposed to bring people together, help them forget their sorrows and worries for 90 mins. A win for your favourite team can bring a smile on your face after a rough day. Let us enjoy the beautiful game in peaceful manner.
On a lighter note:
ORE MACHA
JOTOI CHECHA
JOTOI KORIS DHONG
KALKE TODER 5TA DEBO
3TE DEBE DONG
Translation:
Oh Macha(term used by east bengal fans to denote any mohunbagan fan)
no matter how much you shout
how much you kid around
we will score 5 goals against you
Dong will score 3
JAI HIND
We're hours away from the 312th Calcutta derby or as we call it "Boro Match". This Calcutta Derby is one the most famous and hotly contested derbies in the world despite of the fact that our great nation is a minnow in world football. This rivalry is 90 years old and is featured in FIFA's list of classic derbies. Most of the Mohunbagan fanbase comes from the northern part of kolkata while East Bengal fans mostly hail from the southern part of the city. Historically Mohunbagan fans were mostly from the west part of undivided bengal and East Bengal fans came from the eastern part. This is also known as the battle of 2 delicacies East Bengal being represented by the Hilsa (Ilish Mach) and Mohunbagan by Prawn (Chingri Mach).
Both Teams meet atleast thrice every year, twice in the national league and once in the local league. Though a local derby both of these Boro Clubs enjoy a global fanbase too. East Bengal boasts international fanclubs like East Bengal The Real Power and the newer Red & Gold lovers while Mohunbagan is cheered by the Mariners on The Move. This derby attracts a lot of fans who travel to watch their team play.
Lets take a look at some historic facts:
Mohun Bagan are one of Asia’s oldest clubs having been inaugurated in 1889 in the city then known under its anglicized name, Calcutta. The significant British influence in what was, until 1911, the nation’s capital, ensured the game flourished, drawing players from other regions, and it is against this backdrop in which today’s rivalry took root.
Like many great rivalries a schism, albeit in this case an indirect one, led to the birth of a local challenger. In mid-1920, the Jora Bagan club took to the field against Mohun Bagan without star Sailesh Bose, much to the chagrin of club vice-president Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri. Such was the industrialist's displeasure, he decided to form a new club and East Bengal was born. As Chaudhuri and his co-founders hailed from East Bengal, essentially now modern-day Bangladesh, the club were traditionally supported by immigrants from that area. This resulted in the clubs being backed by two different socio-economic groups, although this has largely changed over the decades.
The first major meeting between the two clubs occurred in 1925 and resulted in a 1-0 win for East Bengal in a Calcutta League match.In the return league of 1925 Mohun Bagan defeated East Bengal by 1-0. The result was repeated when the pair met for the first time in the prestigious IFA Shield in 1944. East Bengal’s semi-final triumph was all the more poignant due to Mohun Bagan’s historic and deep-seated affiliation with the tournament.
Some Facts about this historic Rivalry among The Red and Gold Brigade and The Green-Maroon Mariners
i) The two teams met for the first time in 1925, when East Bengal won the fixture 1-0. Nepal Chakraborty walked into the history books by scoring the only goal. Mona Dutta was the skipper of the winning side.
ii) The 100th derby was played on December 16, 1967, in Rovers Cup final, in which East Bengal had defeated Mohun Bagan 2-0. The 200th match between them was an Airlines Cup final in April 1993, in which Bagan again won 6-5, courtesy a tie-break. The 300th meeting between the two sides was in a championship-leg encounter of the Calcutta Football League's premier division held on January 8, 2012. Nigerian Okolie Odafa and Manish Bhargav scored as the Mariners sealed the game 2-0.
iii) The highest margin of win is the famous 5-0 victory of East Bengal on 30th September, 1975. But it is unknown to many that Shyam Thapa had missed a penalty for the Red and Gold in that match. Had he scored from the spot in the 11th minute, it would have been a worse humiliation for their neighbours. Ashok Banerjee was the skipper of the winning side. In the aforementioned match, Kajal Dhali of East Bengal took the field for his side even though his mother passed away just a few days ago.
iv) Umakanto Palodhi, a Mohun Bagan supporter committed suicide after the 0-5 loss in 1975. In his suicide note was written the lines- “In my next birth, I will take the revenge by becoming a Mohun Bagan footballer.”
v) A fatal pandemonium occurred in the derby on 16th August, 1980 taking a toll of 16 young lives. This marks the darkest day of Indian football. As the referee gave Dilip Palit and Bidesh Basu the marching orders in the second half, the gallery burst into agitation. A stampede at the Eden Gardens resulted in the disaster.
vi) 13th July, 1997 witnessed the madness of the city reach its all-time high as 1,31,000 supporters came to the Salt Lake stadium to watch the derby. However, this was by no means an accurate figure.
East Bengal had won the match 4-1 with Bhaichung scoring a hat-trick, while Najimul Haque had scored the other goal. Chima Okorie reduced the deficit for the Green and Maroons.
vii) Chidi Edeh is the first foreigner to score a hat-trick in the derby. Chidi also holds the record of scoring the maximum number of goals in a single match. He had put the ball into the net four times in Bagan’s 5-3 win over East Bengal on 25th October, 2009. Manish Maithani had scored the other goal.
viii) Bhaichung Bhutia has scored the maximum number of goals in the derby. Among his 19 goals, 13 are for East Bengal, while the other six are for Bagan. Jose Ramirez Barreto comes second with 17 goals all scored for the Mariners, which obviously is the highest number of goals for a particular side by a single player in the derby.
ix) Only four players have captained both the sides: Goutam Sarkar, Prashanta Banerjee, Dulal Biswas and Renedy Singh. An interesting similarity is that all four had been the captain of the East Bengal side first and then went on to lead the Bagan side in later parts of their career.
x) Among the 311 games played between these sides, East Bengal leads the winning chart with an impressive 117-87 margin.
xi) The two teams have faced each other 36 times in the National Football League and I-League combined. East Bengal have won 14 of them, while Mohun Bagan have snatched the bragging rights in 11 games. Honours were shared on 10 occasions.
This kind of matches have seen their fair part of tragedy as well. Every year a number of supporters of either clubs are injured in skrimishes that occur after the match. Football is supposed to bring people together, help them forget their sorrows and worries for 90 mins. A win for your favourite team can bring a smile on your face after a rough day. Let us enjoy the beautiful game in peaceful manner.
On a lighter note:
ORE MACHA
JOTOI CHECHA
JOTOI KORIS DHONG
KALKE TODER 5TA DEBO
3TE DEBE DONG
Translation:
Oh Macha(term used by east bengal fans to denote any mohunbagan fan)
no matter how much you shout
how much you kid around
we will score 5 goals against you
Dong will score 3
JAI HIND
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Comments
Read it full.. Thanks for collecting this data! 🙂 Got to learn something new today.. 🙂
on a derby day u get to meet people from all different socio economic background, it feels wonderful to sit among all those people and watch the gane
He is trolling you Turin.
Am not witty, was the first to comment for a reason.. 🙂
Nice article... much needed break from erep 😃
thnx 😃
Whats a derby btw?
jn football it means a match between two local rival teams
to be honest i didnt read it ... so long :/
😡
😛 tell me in short xD
send me 100g first
there are people who complain me for writing short articles.
IHonouR is too lazy, he even changed his name to a shorter version for that
I'm an Indian football fan. But even I didn't read your article 😃
my bad 😡
Lal holud ! \m/
eb fan?????
Haha somewhat. I don't follow the local derby much, but most of my friends are EB fans. So yeah. 😉
Tui?
slogan dkhe bujhle na????
Heh yeah assumed as much. Tao confirm korchhilam. 😉
😛
I went to read about this...
"Culturally, this derby is very similar to Scottish Premier League's Old Firm derby, since a majority of the Mohun Bagan supporters represent the 'nativist' population (similar to Rangers FC) and a majority of the East Bengal fans represent the 'immigrant' population (similar to Celtic FC)."
I guess I support East Bengal 😛
hey cheers!!! we won yesterday!!! 4 goals to nil